Biography[edit]
Early years and start in animation[edit]
Lantz was born in New Rochelle, New York, to Italian immigrant
parents, Francesco Paolo Lantz (formerly Lanza) and Maria Gervasi from
Calitri.[4] According to Joe Adamson's biography, The Walter Lantz
Story, Lantz's father was given his new surname by an immigration
official who anglicized it.
Walter LantzWalter Lantz was always interested in art,
completing a mail-order drawing class at age 12. He was inspired when
he saw Winsor McCay's animated short, "Gertie the Dinosaur".
While working as an auto mechanic, Lantz got his first break. Wealthy
customer Fred Kafka liked his drawings on the garage's bulletin board
and financed Lantz's studies at the Art Students League of New York.
Kafka also helped him land a job as a copy boy at the New York
American, owned by William Randolph Hearst. Lantz worked at the
newspaper and attended art school at night.
By the age of 16, Lantz was working in the animation department under
director Gregory La Cava. Lantz then worked at the John R. Bray
Studios on the Jerry On The Job series. In 1924, Lantz directed,
animated, and even starred in his first cartoon series, "Dinky
Doodle", which included the popular fairy tale animated shorts
Cinderella (1925) and Little Red Riding Hood (1925)[5]. Lantz soon
replaced George "Vernon" Stallings as head of production at Bray. (In
the 1920s, Bray began to concentrate on competing with Hal Roach, the
"king of two-reelers"). Lantz moved to Hollywood, California, after
Bray switched to a publicity film studio in 1927, where he attempted
to set up his own cartoon studio with Pinto Colvig, but their sound
cartoons never got produced. In the meantime, he worked briefly for
director
Frank CapraFrank Capra and was a gag writer for Mack Sennett
comedies.[6] He also resorted to odd jobs, one of them being the
chauffeur for one of Hollywood's most important moguls.
The Oswald era[edit]
In 1928, Lantz was hired by Charles B. Mintz as director on the Oswald
the Lucky Rabbit cartoon series for Universal Pictures. Earlier that
year, Mintz and his brother-in-law George Winkler had succeeded in
snatching Oswald from the character's creator, Walt Disney. Universal
president
Carl LaemmleCarl Laemmle grew dissatisfied with the Mintz-Winkler
product and fired them, deciding instead to produce the Oswalds on the
Universal lot. While schmoozing with Laemmle, Lantz wagered that if he
could beat Laemmle in a game of poker, the character would be his. As
fate would have it, Lantz won the bet, and Oswald was now his
character.
Lantz inherited many of his initial staff, including animator Tom
Palmer and musician Bert Fiske from the Winkler studio, but
importantly he chose fellow New York animator, Bill Nolan, to help
develop the series. Nolan's previous credentials included inventing
the panorama background and developing a new, streamlined "Felix the
Cat". Nolan was (and still is) best known for perfecting the "rubber
hose" style of animation. In September 1929, Lantz released his first
cartoon, "Race Riot".
By 1935, he parted company with Nolan. Lantz became an independent
producer, supplying cartoons to Universal instead of merely overseeing
the animation department. By 1940, he was negotiating ownership for
the characters with whom he had been working.
The
Woody WoodpeckerWoody Woodpecker era[edit]
When Oswald had worn out his welcome, Lantz needed a new character.
Meany, Miny, and Moe (three ne'er-do-well chimps), Baby-Face Mouse,
Snuffy Skunk, Doxie (a comic dachshund), and Jock and Jill (monkeys
that resembled Warner Brothers' Bosko) were some personalities Lantz
and his staff came up with. However, one character, Andy Panda, stood
out and soon became Lantz's headline star for the 1939–1940
production season.
In 1940, Lantz married actress Grace Stafford. During their honeymoon,
the couple kept hearing a woodpecker incessantly pecking on their
roof. Grace suggested that Walter use the bird for inspiration as a
cartoon character. Taking her advice, though a bit skeptical, Lantz
debuted
Woody WoodpeckerWoody Woodpecker in an
Andy PandaAndy Panda short, "Knock Knock". The
brash woodpecker character was similar to the early Daffy Duck, and
Lantz liked the results enough to build a series around it.
Mel BlancMel Blanc supplied Woody's voice for the first three cartoons. When
Blanc accepted a full-time contract with Leon Schlesinger
Productions/
Warner Bros.Warner Bros. and left the Lantz studio, Woody's voice was
taken over by Danny Webb and later by Kent Rogers. After Rogers went
into the service due to World War II, gagman Ben Hardaway, the man who
was the main force behind "Knock Knock", became the bird's voice.
Despite this, Blanc's distinctive laugh was used throughout the
cartoons.
In 1948, the Lantz studio created a hit Academy Award-nominated song
titled "The
Woody WoodpeckerWoody Woodpecker Song", featuring Blanc's laugh. Mel Blanc
sued Lantz for half a million dollars, claiming that Lantz had used
his voice in later cartoons without permission. The judge, however,
ruled for Lantz, saying that Blanc had failed to copyright his voice
or his contributions. Though Lantz won the case, he paid Blanc in an
out-of-court settlement when Blanc filed an appeal, and Lantz went in
search for a new voice for Woody Woodpecker.
In 1950, Lantz held anonymous auditions. Grace, Lantz's wife, offered
to do Woody's voice; however, Lantz turned her down because Woody was
a male character. Not discouraged in the least, Grace made her own
anonymous audition tape, and submitted it to the studio. Not knowing
who was behind the voice he heard, Lantz picked Grace's voice for
Woody Woodpecker. Grace supplied Woody's voice until the end of
production in 1972, and also performed in non-Woody cartoons. At
first, Grace voiced Woody without screen credit, thinking that it
would disappoint child viewers to know that
Woody WoodpeckerWoody Woodpecker was
voiced by a woman. However, she soon came to enjoy being known as the
voice of Woody Woodpecker, and allowed her name to be credited on the
screen. Her version of Woody was cuter and friendlier than the manic
Woody of the 1940s, and Lantz's artists redesigned the character to
suit the new personality.
Lantz's harmonious relationship with Universal, the studio releasing
his cartoons, was jarred when new ownership transformed the company
into Universal-International and did away with many of Universal's
company policies. The new management insisted on owning licensing and
merchandising rights to Lantz's characters. Lantz refused and withdrew
from the parent company by the end of 1947, releasing 12 cartoons
independently through
United ArtistsUnited Artists in 1948, into the beginning of
1949. Financial difficulties forced Lantz to shut down his studio in
1949. Universal-International re-released Lantz's UA (and several
earlier) cartoons during the shutdown and eventually came to terms
with Lantz, who resumed production in 1951. From this point forward,
Lantz worked faster and cheaper, no longer using the lush, artistic
backgrounds and stylings that had distinguished his 1940s work.
Lantz used his TV appearances on The
Woody WoodpeckerWoody Woodpecker Show (which
began in 1957) to demonstrate the animation process. Later, Lantz
entertained the troops during the
Vietnam WarVietnam War and visited hospitalized
veterans.
Walter LantzWalter Lantz was a good friend of movie innovator George
Pal.
Retirement and death[edit]
By the 1960s, other movie studios had discontinued their animation
departments, leaving
Walter LantzWalter Lantz as one of two producers still making
cartoons for theaters (the other studio was DePatie-Freleng
Enterprises). Lantz finally closed up shop in 1972 (by then, he
explained, it was economically impossible to continue producing them
and stay in business as rising inflation had strained his profits),
and Universal serviced the remaining demand with reissues of his older
cartoons.
In retirement, Lantz continued to manage his properties by licensing
them to media. He continued to draw and paint, selling his paintings
of
Woody WoodpeckerWoody Woodpecker rapidly. On top of that, he worked with Little
League and other youth groups in his area. In 1982, Lantz donated 17
artifacts to the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American
History, among them a wooden model of
Woody WoodpeckerWoody Woodpecker from the
cartoon character's debut in 1941. The Lantzes also made time to visit
hospitals and other institutions where Walter would draw Woody and
Grace would do the Woody laugh for patients.
During the 1980s and 1990s Lantz served on the advisory board of the
National Student Film Institute.[7][8]
In 1990,
Woody WoodpeckerWoody Woodpecker was honored with a star on the Hollywood
Walk of Fame. In 1993, Lantz established a $10,000 scholarship and
prize for animators in his name at
California Institute of the ArtsCalifornia Institute of the Arts in
Valencia.
Walter LantzWalter Lantz died at St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank,
California from heart failure on March 22, 1994, aged 94.
Characters[edit]
Some characters in the Lantz universe (both cartoons and comics) are
Oswald the Lucky RabbitOswald the Lucky Rabbit (formerly), Andy Panda, Space Mouse, Woody
Woodpecker, Inspector Willoughby, Homer Pigeon, Chilly Willy, Lil'
Eightball, Charlie Chicken, Wally Walrus, and many more.
Awards[edit]

In 1959, Lantz was honored by the
Los AngelesLos Angeles City Council as "one of
America's most outstanding animated film cartoonists".
In 1973, the international animation society, ASIFA/Hollywood,
presented him with its Annie Award.
In 1979, he was given a special Academy Award "for bringing joy and
laughter to every part of the world through his unique animated motion
pictures", being the second animator to receive this award (the first
was Walt Disney, who received it three times, while
Chuck JonesChuck Jones was in
1995 the third to receive the merit).
In 1986, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.[9][10]